Breitscheid is a community in the Lahn-Dill-Kreis in Hesse, Germany.
Breitscheid lies from 266 to 600 m above sea level on the eastern slope of the Westerwald range at the point shared by three German states: Hesse, Rhineland-Palatinate and North Rhine-Westphalia.
Erdbach, a constituent community, lies in an interesting place with regards to Earth’s history, in the eastern part of the Westerwald, near that range’s highest peak, Fuchskauten (657 m).
In the Erdbach area are noteworthy limestone deposits from various geological time periods. „Erdbach limestone“ from Lower Carboniferous times gave an era the name „Erdbachium“. The Erdbach – the village’s namesake brook – disappears into a karst system, and does not appear again for 1.5 km where it can be seen in a quarry.
Not far from there, the „Homberg“ fossil reserve was instituted, which serves some university institutes from Jena to the Rhine as a research area. The older limestone formation near Breitscheid (main centre) stems from…